Jonny Wilkinson has joined the debate over boring ‘ping pong’ rugby by admitting teams are becoming increasingly afraid of making a mistake.

Head up: Jonny Wilkinson insists he won't dwell on his poor kicking display against Italy

Wilkinson departed Rome dodging the flak of supporters and pundits after he was criticised for a lack of imagination and faulty place-kicking in the 17-12 win over Italy.

‘You keep playing, you keep learning, you keep your head up,’ was his pledge as he looked forward to England’s next Six Nations game, against Ireland on Saturday week at Twickenham.

Wilkinson accepted that England had lost the kicking contest to Italy and had not tried to counter-attack as much as they should have done.

He explained: ‘At times we did run it and ran it well and we made some good opportunities. Everyone is after that precision in decision making, but the problem is that, if you run it and get it wrong, teams are now extremely good at hitting you hard, turning the ball over and winning penalties. It is an important facet of the game. Maybe we didn’t play as much as we’d like.

‘You have got to make them make a bad kick, you don’t want to give them easy ball. You have to make them work for everything. Leaving yourself short on the chase, allowing them to make a few yards with the ball and get on the front foot is stuff you can’t afford.’

Wilkinson did take a positive from the way he responded to his poor place-kicking, saying: ‘The important thing for me is that however uncomfortable it feels when you miss a kick, you get on with it.’